Day trip to London - unbelievable tube costs!

andygb

We went for a trip to London yesterday, and I drove because I know some free parking spots South of the river.
So, we parked up at 10.00 and walked to Sloane Square, intending to get tube tickets (daily travelcard) to take us to Camden Lock, then to Lecester Square (Chinatown), then back to Sloane Square.
Because of the cost of tube or bus travel, we ended up walking everywhere, but understandably not to Camden.
Can anyone tell me when tube travel became so expensive, because we were told by station staff that we would have to buy two travelcards at £12 each!!!!
The alternative would be an Oyster card for £13 which we would have to pay a £5 deposit each for, or buy individual journey tickets at around £5 for a single.
As I said earlier, we eneded up walking for about six hours, and had a real good look around Kings Road, Harrods, Piccadilly and Chinatown, as well as the National Portrait Gallery, before heading back (with sore feet - why are London's pavements so hard?) to the Southern Embankment the other side of Chelsea Bridge.

PlutoinCapricorn

Have you seen this?

https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/visiting-london/visitor-oyster-card

novelty-socks

TfL have really upped the price of paper tickets in recent years to encourage people to pay using Oyster, so that's why your travelcards seemed so expensive.

Using Oyster to travel in zones 1-2 off-peak would have cost you a maximum of £6.40 each, no matter how many trips you took. (You'd also have to pay the £5 deposit on the Oyster card. You can get this, plus any unused credit, back although it's a bit of a hassle.)

To be honest, if you're an infrequent visitor here the best thing to do is to get a contactless card from your bank / credit card. You can use these to pay all tube and bus fares (just tap the card on the reader) and the charges are the same as with Oyster cards.

bsms1147

A Travelcard (or Oyster Travelcard) probably wasn't the best way of doing this.

All of your trips were in zone 1-2, so using Oyster just for the individual trips, a daily cap of £6.40 would have applied. Yes you would need to pay a refundable £5 for the card itself, but you can either get that money back or keep the card for the next time you go into London.

Alternatively use Contactless - surely you already have this on your credit/debit card? - and no need for Oyster. The cap still applies.

andygb

bsms1147 wrote: »

A Travelcard (or Oyster Travelcard) probably wasn't the best way of doing this.

All of your trips were in zone 1-2, so using Oyster just for the individual trips, a daily cap of £6.40 would have applied. Yes you would need to pay a refundable £5 for the card itself, but you can either get that money back or keep the card for the next time you go into London.

Alternatively use Contactless - surely you already have this on your credit/debit card? - and no need for Oyster. The cap still applies.

I don't think there is any "surely" about it, because I was talking to a neighbour today and they don't have contactless cards either:(
The other thing is, that I don't know the next time we are going to London.

lisyloo

Two alternatives.
Call you bank and ask for contactless cards (you'll need one each).

Otherwise just get the £5 deposit (plus credit) back ff your oyster card at the end of the day from one of the tube ticket machines.

I find contactless useful in the supermarket all the times, so I'd go for the former, but the latter is an option.

Buses top out at £4.40 for a whole day so not in any way expensive.

Castle

novelty-socks wrote: »

TfL have really upped the price of paper tickets in recent years to encourage people to pay using Oyster, so that's why your travelcards seemed so expensive.

Last year (2014) a off peak Travelcard was £8.90; now £12.

macman

TFL fares have been well above inflation for many years now, that's what is funding the huge investment that is being at last made in the tube, train and bus network, after decades of neglect.

susancs

OP, I can understand your feelings. I had to travel from central London to the outskirts of the tube line during peak times last week for a work meeting and it cost me £10.20 for a return journey using my Oyster card. I visted my daughter at Uni some 2.5 hours away by train and paid £12 for a return journey (booked a couple of weeks in advance). A single adult bus fare on London Transport is £1.50 (cashless), but only £1 cash where DD is.

lisyloo

I can't understand people saying it's expensive (although I accept you're penalised for paper tickets).
A fiver for zones 1-6 is a bargain especially considering there's a punitive element for travelling at peak times (which if there wasn't would make your business journey even more crowded than it is already).
£12 is an extremely cheap Advance fare and not representative at all.
Trains through Reading are generally very expensive - for example London - Chippenham can be up to £128 single (ok, first class).
£1.50 to go anywhere on a bus is extremely good value and don't forget that tops out at £4.40 so if you're travelling all day it's spectacular value.

Try living somewhere without public transport and see what it costs to get around.

BTW - the Boris bikes are £2 for 24 hours.
Maybe not appropriate for your business journey, but a cheaper alternative for some.

Double_V

Where did you park for free in London ?
I have to go to London as well. Was thinking to take the car or not.